Belmont: Pure Gossip scores at 23-1 in Miss Grillo

ELMONT, N.Y. - Pure Gossip surprised at 37-1 when she won her debut at Saratoga on the dirt. On Sunday, Pure Gossip pulled off another surprise at 23-1 the first time she ever ran on turf.

Coming off the rail in upper stretch under Ryan Curatolo, the 2-year-old filly Pure Gossip galloped to a 6 1/2-lengh victory in the Grade 3, $100,000 Miss Grillo Stakes run over a soft Belmont Park turf course. Royal Bonnie finished second, but was disqualified for interfering with fourth-place finisher Bourbonstreetgirl in upper stretch. Royal Bonnie was placed fourth while Mystic Mama and Bourbonstreetgirl were elevated to second and third, respectively.

While the Miss Grillo is a stepping-stone to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, Pure Gossip is not nominated to the Breeders’ Cup and would have to be supplemented to the $1 million race for a fee of $100,000.

Pure Gossip is a daughter of Pure Prize out of the mare Dixieland Achiever, who is a half-sister to Street Game, a graded stakes winning 3-year-old who is also a New York-bred. Serpe said he believes the bettors readily dismiss New York-breds in open company stakes.

“People see New York-bred and think that they can’t run,’’ said Serpe, who trains Pure Gossip for Flying Zee Stable. “And I’ll take her over any of those other horses and I’ll take a horse like Street Game who’s a New York-bred over any of those any other horses. … If you look at their family it’s turf, turf, turf. We did not think that she was definitely going to win this race, but it didn’t surprise us that she did win the race.’’

Pure Gossip covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:47.71 and returned $48.20 to win.